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A classic developmental skills text for intermediate to advanced students of English, Understanding and Using English Grammar is a comprehensive reference grammar as well as a stimulating and teachable classroom text. While keeping the same basic approach and material as in earlier editions, the Third Edition more fully develops communicative and interactive language-learning activities. Some of the new features are: *Numerous "real communication" opportunities *More options for interactive work in pairs and groups *Additional open-ended communicative tasks for both speaking and writing *Expanded error analysis exercises *Interesting and lively new exercise material *Shorter units for easy class use The program components include the Student Book, Workbook, Chartbook, Teacher's Guide, and Companion Website. Also available: Understanding and Using English Grammar Interactive (a multimedia CD-ROM).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A classic developmental skills text for intermediate to advanced students of English, Understanding and Using English Grammar is a comprehensive reference grammar as well as a stimulating and teachable classroom text.

While keeping the same basic approach and material as in earlier editions, the Third Edition more fully develops communicative and interactive language-learning activities. Some of the new features are:

Numerous "real communication" opportunities

More options for interactive work in pairs and groups

Additional open-ended communicative tasks for both speaking and writing

Expanded error analysis exercises

Interesting and lively new exercise material

Shorter units for easy class use

The program components include the Student Book, Workbook, Chartbook, Teacher's Guide, and Companion Website.

Also available: Understanding and Using English Grammar Interactive (a multimedia CD-ROM).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This book is a comprehensive reference grammar/workbook for non-native speakers of English. If you are trying to choose between Azar's grammar books, the "Blue" book is intended for intermediate to advanced students, while the "Black" book is for beginning to intermediate and the "Red" for raw beginners. A grammar outline from the "Blue" book is also available without exercises.The book is divided into chapters covering notorious grammar points, including: verb tenses, modals, passive voice, gerunds and infinitives, singular and plural, adjective clauses, noun clauses, connecting expressions, and conditional sentences. There are also appendices covering terminology, question formation, negation, articles, phrasal verbs, and error correction. On average, each chapter has 15-20 articles covering a single grammar point or contrast in detail. Atypical article starts with a grammar description, which is usually presented in the form of a diagram or chart, supported with several examples and explanations. Then follow several exercises, which mostly require the reader to write in the correct form of the word, although oral exercises are common, and there are occasional editing exercises.The book's strength is the clarity of its grammatical explanations, and Azar's simplified diagrams of verb tenses are now standard in many ESL classrooms. Students who crave grammar instruction will adore this book. They like to read the grammatical descriptions, and they get a sense of accomplishment from filling in all the blanks. But will this really improve their grammar? If a student is completely unaware of how a grammatical rule works, then this book will go a long way towards making the rule clear.Read more ›

The geniuses that controlled my education decided that I should skip fourth grade reading because they caught me reading Mark Twain in third grade. I can't imagine what in the WORLD they were thinking, as I came to learn years later that in fourth grade reading they taught - you guessed it - grammar! And boy, did I suffer. My written grammar was absolutely horrendous for years, and even though I continued to be placed in advanced or honors English classes throughout high school, whenever my papers were returned to me the "concept" side came back with an A, and the "grammar" side came back with a D or an F.

There's no substitute for learning young, but this is the closest thing to it. I've never seen a grammar book that's easier to understand than this one. Forget the Idiot's Guides or Dummies books, and invest a little more in this one and the accompanying workbooks. If you're really interested in boning up on your grammar skills, this will be of tremendous assistance.

Also, if you're looking to buy the workbooks, remember that this is the THIRD edition, that it is in blue, and so you should conduct your search for the accompanying workbooks by first identifying those that are blue, and make sure that they're for the third edition. There are several editions available here on Amazon, so buy wisely.

I have taught academic English to university-level non-native speakers for over 30 years, and Azar's grammar series was a solid rock that I could build my courses on...until now.

Yes, this 4th edition has CDs, pretty colored pictures, and lots of conversational exercises, but from an academic perspective, despite its slick add-ons, this is NOT an improvement over the 3rd edition--in fact, in some ways it is a step backwards, particularly for academic-bound international students who may continue to use English internationally.

It is truly dismaying to see what has been deleted from the 3rd Edition to make room in the 4th Ed. for the CD listening exercises and strictly American colloquial items, at a time when internationalized English is most important.

I could write for quite a while about what essential academic English has been sacrificed, but just as one example, the "troublesome verbs" (i.e., raise/rise, sit/set, lay/lie), which often appear on the TOEFL and cannot be dispensed with in formal writing, have been relegated to a brief section in the appendix, and the 3rd Edition's excellent exercise for these verbs has been removed COMPLETELY!

Another thing that is important for university-bound students, the word "whereas" - which was presented in the 3rd Ed. along with "while" as a subordinator showing contrast - is now only mentioned in a small footnote. This is further dismay, considering that "whereas" is in technical writing a more precise, exclusive subordinator to indicate contrast, whereas [!] "while" doubles as a time subordinator.Read more ›

I am a professional ESL teacher and this book is probably the most popular one with both the students and the teachers. The grammar points are divided up very well and there are good explanations and examples for most points.The reason this book is so popular is that the exercises are very simple, something like this:The children (is/are) playing in the yard right now.You simply have to choose the right answer from the two. This simplified approach makes learning grammar very easy, but many students want something more difficult and some complain that the book is a little boring. But when has grammar ever been exciting?